Jacquelyn Park Movies
- 1958
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) must put a fellow cop on the spot when young Officer Blanchard (William Vaughn) is accused of demanding protection money from shady boarding house owner Barclay Evans (Gilman Rankin). Evans insists that Blanchard beat him up when he refused to pay, and claims he has the bruises and dislocated shoulder to prove it. Several other witnesses corroborate Evans' story; trouble is, their stories don't entirely match up. It takes the combined testimony of a doctor, an ex-wife and a bookie to find out where the truth lies. This episode is based on the Dragnetradio broadcast of March 6, 1952. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are none too pleased when fellow police officer James Sorvell (Scott Douglas) is falsely accused of extortion. While Sorvell is placed on suspension, the two detectives search high and low for the crook who bears a striking resemblance to the accused officer, and who is posing as Sorvell to shake down unsuspecting citizens. The title character in this episode (which was based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of July 19, 1955) is played by voiceover artist John Stephenson, better known to fans of The Flintstones as the voice of Fred's boss Mr. Slate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Gun Girls is the sort of film where one has trouble concentrating on the story for fear that the sets are going to collapse. The story concerns a female hold-up gang whose slimy male fence keeps them supplied with drugs and sex. One of the girls is impregnated by the fence, whereupon a seedy, drink-sodden surgeon is called in to "fix things." When another of the girls is killed in a service station shootout, the law closes in. At times it's hard to tell whether the moviemakers took this one seriously or not. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1949
Taken (as far as possible) from the Cole Porter musical comedy of the same name, Red, Hot and Blue stars Betty Hutton as an ambitious chorus girl. Hutton gets a job with a musical comedy bankrolled by gangsters, and is the wrong girl at the wrong place when one of the show's backers (William Talman) is bumped off. She is arrested for suspicion of murder, then is kidnapped by the villains to keep her from spilling the beans. The plot requires that she be rescued by hero Victor Mature, though many disgruntled audience members may have been rooting for the boisterous Hutton to be dumped in the East River. The stage version of Red Hot and Blue starred Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, and Bob Hope. Hutton is no Merman, but she gives her all to the brassy production numbers and the self-absorbed ballads--written not by Cole Porter, whose score was dispensed with, but by Paramount's in-house tunesmith Frank Loesser, who also plays a small role as one of the gangsters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Hutton, Victor Mature, (more)
